Education is important for District 11 candidates

PALMER — As is probably to be expected when one candidate is a teacher and the other a former stay-at-home mom, education comes up a lot in the race to represent Greater Palmer in the state House of Representatives.

Incumbent Republican Shelley Hughes and challenging Democrat Pete LaFrance had a lot to say about schools and differing ideas on how to move forward. The district represents Palmer and some of the surrounding area.

Shelley Hughes

“Education is very important,” Hughes said.

She and her husband were able to achieve what they have — starting from relatively modest beginnings — because they had an education. Their children are successful for the same reason.

“At the same time we have to understand that we don’t have an unlimited supply of revenue and so we’re going to have to be very careful,” Hughes said.

She said the state needs to be responsible in how it spends on education but also encourage models like the Mat-Su Borough School District, which focuses on providing myriad options for students in terms of what kinds of schools they attend.

Hughes came to Alaska as a teenager and has lived all over, from Bethel to Hoonah to Fort Yukon and Seward, though for 24 years she’s lived with her family in Palmer. She’s been a stay-at-home mom and a commuter working in Anchorage. She’s worked for non-profits and as a legislative aid.

In addition to education, Hughes said she sees infrastructure as key to the state.

“We are going to have to prioritize because we are not going to be able to pay for everything right now,” she said.

But, at the same time, infrastructure is a proper focus for government because bridges and roads are beyond the ability of individuals to build.

The need to figure out the proper role of government plays a big part in Hughes’ thinking. With oil production declining and state revenue shrinking, Hughes said she sees state government entering a period of contraction.

“We are going to have to look at all of the things that the state government has been doing and we’ll have to ask ourselves, is this a proper role for the state government under the constitution,” Hughes said.

She said the Legislature needs to make sure that the shrinking of state government proceeds deliberately to avoid an economic crash and a “mass exodus” of people from the state.

Pete LaFrance

Born and raised in Palmer, LaFrance graduated from Palmer High School and spent time living all over — from California to Minnesota to Luxembourg and Mexico — before finally returning home to Palmer. He currently works at Mirror Lake Middle School as a technology collaborator, teaching both students and teachers how to effectively use technology.

“I think we need to be smarter in how we run our schools we need to trust the local school boards to make decisions and we need to be honest about funding,” LaFrance said on the topic of education before noting that the Base Student Allocation — the funding the state gives to local school districts — is not inflation-proofed and therefore has shrunk in real dollars, even if it’s gone up numerically.

“I think we inflation-proof all sorts of other industries, we understand that energy costs go up, we understand that salaries go up with inflation, we understand that things cost more except in education,” he said.

LaFrance describes himself as fiercely nonpartisan.

“I don’t adhere to any sort of party politics, any of this nonsense, any of these shenanigans that we see coming out of Juneau. I find them repugnant,” he said.

The state has been spending wastefully in other areas, though — LaFrance pointed to subsidies paid to refineries that were profitable and to help risky business ventures in Southeast — that he’d like to see cut.

But he’s not opposed to big state projects.

“I’m all for big infrastructure projects if they make sense. I think the crux of our problem as Alaska is we need to figure out a way to diversify our economy. We have to make correct decisions that ensure that our children have a bright and prosperous economic future, period,” he said.

But they have to pencil it out; the benefits have to outweigh the costs. So, if a big new electricity generation project opens up enough new opportunities to justify the expense, he’s for it. If a bridge can open up new land to development, he’s for it.

“I think we need to be very careful, though, because we’ve had an approach where we’ve spread ourselves so thin and it doesn’t seem like anything is getting done,” LaFrance said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.